A while back, we released The Google Graveyard [6], an infographic detailing Google's various flops and failures in the product department, including Google Wave and Google X.
Now, following up on the release of Facebook's iPad app [7] last week (which most people have been less than impressed with [8]), we've created a new infographic walking through some of Facebook's criticisms, missteps and failures [9] since its inception in 2004.
Facebook boasts approximately 800 million active users worldwide and an estimated $4.27 billion in estimated annual revenue – but you don’t approach the 1-billion-users mark without making a few mistakes along the way, right? Facebook’s errors in judgment have included:
- A slew of privacy snafus: Facebook repeatedly faces criticism for its user-unfriendly privacy policy and default settings that force daily overshares.
- Constant, unwelcome UX changes: Another day, another Facebook update. The latest changes include a real-time ticker sidebar that turns your friends’ updates into a stream of spam.
- Facebook Deals: Facebook’s attempt to compete with social deals companies like Groupon and LivingSocial was short-lived – in fact, this venture lasted just four months!
- Facebook Lite: This was supposed to be a less bandwidth-hungry version of Facebook for use on slower networks, but the company killed it after eight months.
- “Quit Facebook Day”: In June 2011, Facebook lost 6 million US users, the first time that figure has dropped since its inception. The addictive, mood-killing quality of Facebook along with privacy concerns have driven former fans to quit in droves.
Check out the full Facebook infographic here [9] or click below to enlarge.
[9]
